A different kind of denim
by Melodylink
Summary: In which Ash finds the perfect pair of jeans ... in a manner of speaking. AAMR


**A Different Kind of Denim**

She was glaring at her textbook, trying to cram incomprehensible facts and figures into her unwilling head. The long technical terms danced teasingly in front of her eyes, and she reached for a packet of chips to help find the energy to fight them.

And then Satoshi was there, magically summoned by the presence of food. He swiveled on the balls of his feet and collapsed dramatically on the ground beside her.

"I'm hungry," he announced.

Kasumi scowled at the papers strewn in front of her. "Of course you are," she said without looking up. "You're always hungry."

"It's true," Satoshi said cheerfully. "Lucky for me, I have this amazing friend who has generously offered to share her food with me."

Kasumi glared up at him. "No way," she said. "Get your own, you lazy boy."

He grinned at her. "But I want yours," he said coaxingly.

Kasumi opened her mouth to reply. Satoshi took this as an opportunity and reached past her to snag her chips. Kasumi squarked indignantly, and made a desparate grab to retrieve them, but Satoshi held them above his head out of her reach. She gave it up as a lost cause, and settled for punching him in the stomach. He doubled over, temporarily winded, and she took the opportunity to grab her chips back triamphantly, only to find he had already finished them. She stared at Satoshi in astonishment.

"How did you do that?" she asked. "I swear, you only had them for a second, and there was most of a packet left."

He shrugged, and grinned, his dark eyes laughing at her. "The hand is quicker than the eye," he said. "Or you underestimate my amazing powers in the area of food consumption."

Kasumi rolled her eyes, unable to be truly mad at hem. Instead, she changed the subject. "Shouldn't you be studying?" she asked. "Our exam starts in, like, two hours."

Satoshi groaned. "Studying?" he asked. "On a beautiful day like today? No thanks."

Kasumi stared at him again. "Didn't you hear me?" she demanded. "Two hours!"

Satoshi yawned, and sprawled out on the blanket beside her, blinking sleepily in the sunshine. "Just enough time for a nap then," he said.

"But - " Kasumi started, then stopped, feeling that old familiar feeling of irritation. She should have known that Satoshi wasn't going to take studying seriously.

For example, Kasumi had always wanted to go to law school. It had been a lifelong ambition for her, and she schedualed her whole life to lead up to that point. Her only worry was that she would have to leave Satoshi behind. The thought of not seeing her best friend everyday was a retarding weight, one that made her doubt her decision, and lie awake at night, trying to think of ways that they could still see each other all the time.

When she had finally broken the news to Satoshi, he had just shrugged, and said "Sure'. His casual acceptance of her not-so-casual decision had hurt her, although she strove to keep this knowledge from him. It would never do for anyone, especially for Satoshi, to find out how much his opinion meant to her.

It was much later before Kasumi found out that Satoshi had no intention of being left behind. He was going with her to university, to study. It was as if it had never occurred to him that they could be separated. Like the lines of a corny song, wherever she would go, he would go too.

Sometimes the very thought of Satoshi made her mad. He seemed to take everything in his stride with a boyish assurance that was both frustrating and strangely admirable. She had agonised over this decision. He had made it in the blink of an eye. Having once made his decision however, he had stuck to it with all the determination and passion that was so very Satoshi. He never did anything by halves, and plowed through the years of his degree with the same dogged persistence and passion that characterised the rest of his life.

And now, here they were, studying frantically for their final exams.

At least, Kasumi was studying. Satoshi appeared to be sleeping.

'Wake up, squirt,' she hissed, nudging an elbow into his side. He stirred, and mumbled something incomprehensible. Kasumi felt the familiar irritation arise. They were scant hours away from their final exam, the exam that would decide the rest of their career and by extension their lives, and instead of freaking out like any normal person, Satoshi was asleep.

There was a saying; 'You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy.' Satoshi was like that. Surrounded on all sides by the dirt and grime and ugliness of the city, he still carried his perfect world inside his head. Somehow, Kasumi had never admired him more.

There was a innocence to him that all the common-place grime and casual immorality of the big city could not erase. Beneath it all, he was still that same young man who still blushed and ducked when his mother ruffled his hair. There was a little gem of innocence inside him still, a naivety that belied his solid six foot two. Not even ten years of living in the big city had been enough to dispel that country-boy morality of his. In lots of ways, he was still that scruffy-haired boy who believed that Superman would always save Lois Lane at the last minute, and that the bad guys would always get what was coming to them.

She watched him, as he lounged carelessly on the blanket, his eyes closed and his face pointed up towards the blue summer sky. Kasumi shifted uncomfortably beside him. The blanket was not really big enough for two people, and she was ultra conscious of his presence beside her.

Unfortunately, she was equally aware that Satoshi was blissfully ignorant to the idea that there might be something improper about a boy and a girl lying close enough to touch. He had grown up considerably since the day she first met him. Then he had been shorter than she was, a small, scruffy little kid with messy hair and passionate eyes. Now she was acutely aware of the entire warm length of him stretched out carelessly beside her. His hair was still messy, his eyes still warm, but now he was all lean muscle and taut strength. He shifted beside her, making the muscles in his back plainly visible as they rippled under his shirt.

Suddenly, he spoke. "So, what are you studying?"

Kasumi jumped, embarrassed to be caught staring at him. Hurridly, she turned back to her books. "Legislation on age limits for marriage," she said, her face pink.

Satoshi opened his eyes a fraction to look at her. "Age limits?"

Kasumi tossed him a glare. "Yes. Age limits. You know, like, how old do you have to be before you should get married. It's in our exam."

Satoshi grinned back up at her. "And what do you think it should be?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, confused.

"How old should you have to be?"

Kasumi frowned into her notebook. "I think that you should have to be at least twenty-six."

"Why twenty-six?"

"Well, because then you should know pretty much what your life is going to be like, and you can be mature enough to make such an important decision."

Satoshi frowned back at her. "So you're saying that at twenty-five you are still too young, but twenty-six comes along and _bam!_ your ability to make life altering decisions is suddenly improved."

Kasumi sat up and glared at him again. "That's not what I mean, and you know it."

"Well, what do you mean then?" he asked challengingly. "I think it's a bit rough on everyone to make them wait until they're thirty to get married. What if they are in love now? Shouldn't they be allowed to celebrate that?"

"That's exactly the problem," she replied quickly. "Young people are in love, and they think that they will stay that way forever, so they make decisions that they aren't ready to handle."

"Who says they aren't ready to handle it?"

"Have you seen the divorce rate lately?" she shot back. "People in their late teens and early twenties are getting married before they've even finished school. How could anyone be surprised when they break up within the first few years?"

"Not all of them do."

"Enough of them," she said. "Look, I have a theory about this."

Satoshi groaned and lay back down onto the grass. "Of course you do. You have a theory about everything."

"Will you just listen to me?" she demanded.

Satoshi sighed dramatically and closed his eyes. "Alright then," he said. "Lay it on me."

Kasumi sat up a little straighter, excited about being able to articulate her thoughts on the matter. "This is what I think," she said. "Being young and in love is like finding the perfect pair of jeans."

"Oh god," Satoshi groaned. "You're going to talk about your clothes again..."

Kasumi whacked him on the head. "Listen, you idiot. The perfect pair of jeans hug all the right places, and smooth flatteringly over your imperfections. They make you look better just by wearing them, and because you look better, you feel better. Life _is_ perfect, with the perfect pair of jeans."

Satoshi cocked a lazy eye at her. "This just confirms my theory that you spend way too much time thinking about your clothes."

Kasumi ignored him and continued, undeterred. "It's exactly the same feeling when you are in love. There is a lilt in your step, a confidence in your smile, and a dance in your eyes."

"Lyrical," said Satoshi, without opening his eyes. "But does all this have a point?"

She scowled at him. "Of course there is a point."

"Getting married young is like believing that the jeans you love now will continue to fit you as perfectly for the rest of your life. It is ridiculous to assume that your body will not change in the next sixty years. If you told anyone that you believed that the pair of jeans you wear today will fit you just the same, and feel just as good when you are thirty and starting to spread, or when you are sixty and old age is beginning to make your muscles shrink and your stomach bulge, they would think you'd gone off your nut.

Getting married while you are still young is equally ridiculous. Who can say with any seriousness that your tastes and preferences, your ideals and your emotions will not change as you grow older? In fact, usually the change is so marked that the 'you' of today and the 'you' of tomorrow are complete strangers to each other. Think of how different you are now to what you were even three years ago. Now multiply those changes by a thousand, and that is how different you will be in twenty, forty, sixty years time. It is madness to say that the person who fits you so perfectly right now will continue to fit when you haven't even finished growing yourself.

Satoshi looked at her skeptically. "So you're saying that you should never fall in love, because you are destined to fall out of love eventually? That's stupid."

Kasumi glared at him. "I'm not saying that you should never fall in love," she said.

"Just that you shouldn't get married."

Kasumi nodded. "That's right. By all means, your should cherish the perfect pair of jeans if you can find them. All I'm saying is that you should keep your mind, and your options, open – at least until you know what your life is going to look like. "

Satoshi looked unimpressed. "I still think that sounds stupid," he said.

"Well, what do you think?" she asked challengingly.

He shrugged uneasily, his hand going to the back of his head in that nervous manner that was so familiar to her. "I dunno…"

She said nothing, waiting for him to think it through.

"I guess…" he struggled with the words. "I guess that sometimes you know that something is right straight away." He looked up at her, and then at the univeristy around them. "And once you've found that, if you are sixteen, or sixty-six, you'll do whatever you have to do, and go wherever you have to go to hold on to it."

Having said his piece, he made to get up, but Kasumi caught hold of his arm, making him pause and look back at her questioningly. She opened her mouth, then shut it again, not sure what she wanted to say.

Satoshi looked at her as if she was crazy. "What?"

"Why did you decide to come to university?" The words came out all in a rush, something she had often wondered about before, but Satoshi had never quite answered to her satisfaction.

He looked at her, as if considering something, then said with an odd smile, "I found the perfect pair of jeans."

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked, exasperated.

He smiled lopsidedly at her, clearly finished with the conversation. "Let's get going," he said. "Or you'll be late for your precious exam."

Kasumi sighed inwardly, but made to get up. Then, without much of a warning, Satoshi leaned forward and pressed his lips against her own. A flood of sweetness exploded into her stomach at his unexpected touch. It only lasted a second, and Kasumi was too surprised to respond, but her heart almost stopped beating at the feel of his gentle lips against hers.

He drew back, and for a moment she could see a depth of unexpected emotions in his dark eyes. Then he grinned at her, the same indefatigable, boyish grin that had captured her years ago.

"Come on," he said. "Let's go or we'll be late."

He leapt to his feet, and strode off, leaving Kasumi to trail behind; the fingers of one hand brushing lips that still tingled slightly.

It had been soft and shy, but inexplicably sweet, and Kasumi tasted the flavour of that half-stolen kiss all the way through her final exam.

_**fin**_


End file.
